Exploring the ABCs of Content Strategy

Getting to know the lingo of any given profession can be a pain in the butt, whether it’s doctors, lawyers, pilots, or the equally prestigious content strategists. Sometimes it’s nice to just have an alphabetical list of terms to refer to when there’s a word that pops up we haven’t heard before. If only we had something like that for content strategy…

Luckily, UX Booth columnist Jess Hutton has us covered. Recently published on Medium, Jess takes her readers on an exploration of content strategy, by way of alphabetical adventure. Starting at A, then onto B, then diving into C and onward on a predictable but journey through the terms, tools, methods, and lingo used most frequently by content strategists.

To demonstrate what a great resource this can be for newbies and seasoned strategists alike, take a look at Jess’ entry on Discovery (which is under D, by the way):

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.’ You’re not going to need a sextant for content strategy discovery, but there are a lot of tools to help this process.
In the discovery phase, a CS’s job is to help create a map of the project landscape for the team to work from. Some team members can glance at a map and know immediately what they need to do next, and others need to study up on the map before they jump in. Customize your map to the members of your team. A CS discovery map could include any of these elements:

a content audit

a content inventory

a competitive analysis

a gap analysis

an audience survey or demographic report

personas for customers, users, readers

product overviews or cheat sheets

brand guidelines

sitemaps and framing documents

you name it!

And then you have the freedom (and responsibility) to build out a discovery tool that will guide your team into making good things.

For those who find themselves curious about content strategy, what it means, and how to break into the community, this article serves as a great primer introduction for newcomers and team members wanting to better understand what can often feel like a very confusing field of work.